TUESDAY THINGERS 8-26-08

From Boston Bibliophile....

Today's topic: LibraryThing authors. Who are your LibraryThing authors? What books of theirs do you have? Do you ever comment on an author's LT page? Have you received any comments from an author on your LT account?

I don't have any Library Thing authors. I need to get some, I need some, I feel so alone. Please Please I need some authors. (sorry, mild attempt at humor). I guess I need to check out that feature.

OLD FASHIONED

The working end of a John Deere H, complete with PTO (Power Take Off)

FIRST DAUGHTER

First Daughter
By Eric Van Lustbader
Forge Books

This book is timed just perfectly for a presidential election year. The time setting is of an outgoing administration that has held office for the last eight years and the soon to be new administration. The president on his way out does not really want to relinquish power while the president elect definitely has some different plans in mind. Shortly before the new president takes office his soon to be “first daughter” is abducted. Who did it and why? That is what the main character Jack McClure must find out. He himself is recovering from the accidental death of his own daughter who was the best friend of Alli, the first-daughter. The president –elect feels there is no one better for the job, against the wishes of the secret service. One unique quality that Jack has is dyslexia. While it is and has been a hindrance to him throughout most of his life, it also gives him the ability to see a situation three dimensionally often finding the answers long before anyone else.
The book opens with a bang and you are instantly caught up in finding out what is going to happen. I at times felt slightly disappointed in the writing because it seemed to me that a character was acting odd and I did not see why this author would write about them is such an odd way. Hah! I eventually found out why some of the characters seemed odd to me. It all made sense in the end. I had no idea some of the things that were coming and enjoyed every minute of it.
Not only was this a book about an abduction it also was about spirituality and religion. Throughout the book the characters were dealing with the idea of the impact of religion on their lives. How they justify their behavior with their beliefs and how much the government should allow religion to determine the direction of legislation. This was thought provoking and gave the book much more depth than your average everyday mystery/thriller.
Much in the book will seem to mirror the present political climate in the U.S. Only you can decide how much is fact and how much is fiction. The rest we will never know.
I enjoyed this book.

TUESDAY THINGERS 8-19-08

This week Boston Bibliophile asks:

Today's question: LT and RL (real life)- do you have friends in real life that you met through LibraryThing? Have you attended any LT meet-ups in your area? Would you be open to attending meet-ups or is LT strictly an online thing for you?

Sad to say I do not have any real life friends that are on Library Thing. I have met some really nice people there and love to hear what they have to say on all of the different forums but as of yet I don't know of any that live close to me and you would think I would since I live in Los Angeles. I have told my friends about Library Thing but somehow they just don't seem to get how cool it is. I am the only one of my real time friends that does admit to a book addiction. I hope to get more people interested though. I think what I like about the people that I have met so far on LT is that they in general seem to behave themselves and avoid bad online behavior when responding to other peoples posts that they may not agree with. I appreciate not having to read posts that turn in to flame wars just to keep up with what is going on in the book world.

SELF PORTRAIT

While this is a very rough photo it was fun to do and it gives me some ideas of things I might want to try in the future.

SO LONG AT THE FAIR

So Long at the Fair A Novel
By Christina Schwarz
Doubleday, Publisher
ISBN: 978-0-385-51029-5
I originally was interested in reading this book because of the title and the location. I was born and raised in North Eastern Ohio in 1962 so the life that the main characters of this book lived is very much like my memories of growing up.
On the first look this book is about adultery but it goes a lot deeper than that. There are two main time lines that take place and also an additional one thrown in just for some added flavor. Sometimes keeping these time lines clear can be difficult since a few of the characters show up in more than one time line but they have changed just enough that you need to double check often to see who it is that is being referred to. I found that the book grabbed me right away with just enough information to keep me reading to find out what happens. The main time frame of the book actually takes place over one morning and afternoon. This being said you realize that much of the book is filled with background information and time to get to know and understand the motivations behind the many characters.
There are two groups of characters in this book that you discover early on are two generations of several families in one small town. It seems that what happens to them is seemingly unrelated. The 1960’s time line has mystery and revenge. The later time line has adultery. Other than the fact that the people are related you find yourself wondering why they are important to each other. This I think is where a reader will benefit if they have a little bit of life behind them. The reason I say this is that while on the outside this is a book about all of the things listed above, on closer examination this is a book about life and how things can often go wrong. What is happening to the main characters Ginny and Jon is something that is not new. These are issues that many of us will face in some way in our lives whether or not we want to admit it or not. When we are younger we often think that our parents have no idea what the “real world” is like but as we get older we realize the valuable resource they are and often have overcome even greater self-imposed obstacles than we had. I liked the fact that this book shows the different paths that people can choose when hardship hits and how that will ultimately impact the rest of their lives.
The ending is not at all what I expected. I did not like it at first. I did however come to love the ending once I had some time to think about it. I found this book to be very thought provoking. The writing was well done and I don’t think William Faulkner could have done a better job with the time lines. If you are looking for a book to just be fluff about adultery you will find it in this book. But, it you want to look for something deeper you will also find it in this book. Open up to these characters all of whom are just trying to find their way through a difficult world. I think a reader who looks will find much deeper messages here than they would have realized on the first look. Recommended

TUESDAY THINGERS 8-12-08

Today from Boston Bibliophile:

Today's question: Favorite bookstores. What's your favorite bookstore? Is it an online store or a bricks-and-mortar store? How often do you go book shopping? Is your favorite bookstore (or bookstores) listed as a favorite in LT? Do you attend events at local bookstores? Do you use LT to find events?

I really don't think I can say that I have a favorite bookstore. Where I live there are Barnes and Nobles and Borders just about everywhere so If I am book shopping that is where I end up. I do most of my book shopping on line. Mostly with Amazon but also straight from the publishers web site as well. Since I became a Mom 4 years ago I seldom have the chance to just hang and browse at a bookstore like I used to. If I take my daughter into a bookstore it is only if I know exactly what I want in advance and go right for it. Oh, how I look forward to the future when I can browse again. As far as the events listing on LT I look at it from time to time but have not gone to any of the events. I want to soon and am waiting for just the right one to get me started.

ROUGH

Tuesday Thingers August 5

This week from the Boston Bibliophile:

Today's question is only marginally about LibraryThing but I thought it might be a fun question anyway. It's more about blogging. Everyone who participates in Tuesday Thingers has a blog- some have a book blog, some have several, some have blogs that are more personal, etc.- and we've all chosen to participate in this particular way of networking to build traffic, get to know each other, etc. So my question is: what other weekly memes or round robins do you participate in? Is this the only one? Why Tuesday Thingers and not some other weekly Tuesday meme? Or do you do more than one?Also, if you feel like you don't have enough memes, you can visit The Daily Meme for even more blogging options for different days of the week. I know- like you don't have enough to do! :-)

This is the only weekly meme that I participate in. I am intentionally not doing more at this time. I have a really bad habit of thinking too optimistically of my time so I have decided to only add one at a time until I am sure I can keep up. I am considering when the time comes to add to do Sunday Salon. For now however this is it for me.

FrameShifting

FrameShifting: A Path to Wholeness
By David K. Banner PhD
Loving Healing Press, Publisher
ISBN: 978-1-932690-55-2

In this book the author explores the world of the ego. He presents ideas as to what it is and how to recognize when our egos are running our life, which is most of the time. Throughout the book the author also presents many different ways to learn to move from a more egocentric frame to one that allows us to live in a more unified way with everything else.

In this book you will not find firm concrete answers to the question of the ego but you will discover tools that the author has used in his own process. Each of the tools are discussed enough to let the reader have an idea of what they are about but he does not go into detail about each one. They include such programs as The Course in Miracles, The Avatar Program, and the Enneagram to have a better understanding of our own Ego and how it presents itself in the world. What the author does in this work is show you how he has taken from many programs throughout his journey to arrive at the place he is at now. He describes in somewhat self-conscious detail his own journey. He also encourages the reader to explore and do the same. He never insists on a particular program but offers ideas to the reader on where they can look and what they may find when they get there.

I enjoyed this book and found more than anything that it was inspiring to me. I have already done a little work with Avatar and other similar programs and after reading this book I feel encouraged to explore a bit more and to find more time for meditation in my life. I think a key word here is that this book is in a self-help kind of category of work. It is not meant to do the work for you but it assists you in helping yourself. I recommend it to anyone wanting to examine the way they relate to the world and do something about it.

The Good Thief A Novel

The Good Thief A Novel
By Hannah Tinti
The Dial Press
ISBN: 978-0-385-33745-8
From the back of the book “Benjamin Nab appears one day at the orphanage where Ren has spent the eleven years of his young life. Convincing the monks he is Ren’s long-lost brother, Benjamin sweeps the boy away into a vibrant world of adventure, filled with outrageous scam artists, grave robbers, and petty thieves. But is Benjamin Nab really who he claims to be? As Ren begins to find clues to his hidden parentage, he comes to suspect that Benjamin holds the key not only to his future but to his past as well.”
I completely enjoyed this book. I instantly became sympathetic to the plight of Ren and all of the situations that he found himself in. The writing of the book itself was great. There were many interesting characters within the pages and yet the author was able to make each and every one of them rich and full without excessively long descriptions. What I liked was that for some of them the description was enough to get you interested in the character but it was limited. Then later in the book that limited information would blossom into much more such as in the character of “Dolly”. The author never came right out with the medical diagnosis of his situation but it was alluded to. Other characters the author described using one word descriptions that pack enough punch that you understood much of the person’s situation and could move on. This style of working with characters really made me feel a part of the book as well. I felt like I was right along the journey with them.
In many places within the story I found myself laughing out loud over plot twists that I never saw coming. I would be reading along thinking “alright I got that, now what is next” then boom she would throw something new in the mix that would not only make me laugh out loud but forever would change the tapestry of the story.
I highly recommend this book. The story was interesting, eventful, funny, sad, and in the end satisfying.